tessie and teddy skated along smoothly on their errand for mother. the roller skates behaved very well, and did not try to race with each other, so that neither little messenger had a fall, or even a bump against anybody on the sidewalk who did not get out of the way in time.

the fat grocer man said good morning very pleasantly, and gave them each a little animal cracker. tessie told him what she wanted, and while he was counting out the eggs and putting them in the bag, she stroked his big tiger cat, who lay half asleep on the top of the sugar barrel.

"here you are, miss," said the grocer man, handing the package to tessie, "and be careful, little man," he added, turning to teddy, "that you don't run into sister and upset her—you won't have any eggs if you do!"

"of course not," replied teddy, biting off the hind legs of his buffalo cracker. "i'll take care," and both children wabbled over the floor and through the doorway out onto the sidewalk.

everything went along beautifully. teddy kept well behind so that tessie would have plenty of room, and the distance was half over, when something happened. about a block from the house, the sidewalk ran down a small hill. although tessie had time and again coasted down without the slightest trouble, today it seemed as if she were going very much faster than usual. perhaps she was a little worried over the bag of eggs. at any rate, all of a sudden her feet behaved very badly, and before she could help it, one foot went off to one side and tessie did, too. down she went in a heap. crash! smash! mash! there were scrambled eggs all over the walk!

tessie turned a frightened glance towards teddy who just came up.

"o dear me! how shall i ever explain to mother?" cried poor little tessie.